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Journal of Chromatography A
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/chroma
Review
Sample preparation for the analysis of isoavones from soybeans and soy foods
M.A. Rostagno a, , A. Villares a , E. Guillamn a , A. Garca-Lafuente a , J.A. Martnez a,b
a
Centro para la Calidad de los Alimentos, Instituto Nacional de Investigacin y Tecnologa Agraria y Alimentaria (INIA),
Campus Universitario Duques de Soria, 42004 Soria, Spain
b
Universidad de Navarra, Dpto. Fisiologa y Nutricin, Edicio de Investigacin, C/Irunlarrea, 1, 31008 Pamplona, Spain
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history:
Received 6 August 2008
Received in revised form 3 November 2008
Accepted 13 November 2008
Available online 19 November 2008
Keywords:
Reviews
Isoavones
Soybeans
Sample conservation
Sample preparation
Extraction
Analysis
a b s t r a c t
This manuscript provides a review of the actual state and the most recent advances as well as current
trends and future prospects in sample preparation and analysis for the quantication of isoavones
from soybeans and soy foods. Individual steps of the procedures used in sample preparation, including sample conservation, extraction techniques and methods, and post-extraction treatment procedures
are discussed. The most commonly used methods for extraction of isoavones with both conventional
and modern techniques are examined in detail. These modern techniques include ultrasound-assisted
extraction, pressurized liquid extraction, supercritical uid extraction and microwave-assisted extraction.
Other aspects such as stability during extraction and analysis by high performance liquid chromatography
are also covered.
2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Contents
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
General aspects of soy isoavones determination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sample stability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Hydrolysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Extraction techniques and methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.1.
Solid and semi-solid samples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.1.1.
Conventional extraction methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.1.2.
Modern extraction techniques and methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.2.
Liquid samples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.3.
Optimization of extraction conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
5.4.
Critical comparison of extraction methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Post-treatment of extracts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Separation approaches/techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Acknowledgment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3
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7
7
7
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21
22
23
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26
27
28
28
Abbreviations: , Dielectric constant; ACE, Acetone; ADi, Acetyl daidzin; AGi, Acetyl genistin; AGly, Acetyl glycitin; ASE, Accelerated solvent extraction; CE, Capillary
electromigration techniques; De, Daidzein; Di, Daidzin; DMSO, Dimethylsulfoxide; DSM, Defatted soybean meal; EtOH, Ethanol; Ge, Genistein; Gi, Genistin; Gle, Glycitein; Gly,
Glycitin; MAE, Microwave-assisted extraction; MeCN, Acetonitrile; MeOH, Methanol; MGi, Malonyl genistin; MDi, Malonyl Daidzin; MGly, Malonyl glycitin; PLE, Pressurized
liquid extraction; PSE, Pressurized solvent extraction; SC-CO2 , Supercritical CO2 ; SFE, Supercritical uid extraction; SPE, Solid phase extraction; SPI, Soy protein isolate; SPME,
Solid phase microextraction; SWE, Superheated water extraction; UAE, Ultrasound-assisted extraction.
Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 975 233204; fax: +34 975 233205.
E-mail address: rostagno.mauricio@inia.es (M.A. Rostagno).
0021-9673/$ see front matter 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.chroma.2008.11.035
1. Introduction
Functional foods are one of the most promising elds concerning
nutritional sciences. These food-stuffs are interesting from the consumer point of view with the prospect of maintaining health and
preventing diseases by using natural foods as part of the habitual
diet, and also from the industry point of view, for the added value
of the products. There are several raw materials that can be used for
healthy purposes and soybeans are among those with the greatest
potential. Soybeans are one of most produced and commercialized
commodities worldwide. Actually, there are several foods derived
or based on soybeans such as soy milk, tofu and tempeh, and the
consumption and use of soybeans (texturized soy protein, concentrated soy protein and soy protein isolate) as additives by the food
industry is increasing every year [14].
The potential of soybeans as a functional food is being currently
explored by the food industry. Indeed, soybeans and soy foods, like
soymilk, tofu, miso and tofu, are widely promoted and eaten based
on assumed relationships between its consumption and benecial health effects in humans including chemoprevention of breast
and prostate cancer, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease as well
as relieving menopausal symptoms. Evidence provided not only by
epidemiological studies showing a lower incidence of these health
conditions in Asian countries like Japan and China, which have high
soy consumption, but also from intervention studies, is the basis of
this relationship [512].
During the last decades our knowledge about the dietary impact
on health and well-being has been highly increased and often
related to specic food components. Several classes of phytochemicals have been identied in soybeans, including protease inhibitors,
phytosterols, saponins, phenolic acids, phytic acid and isoavones
[1316]. Of these, isoavones are particularly noteworthy because
soybeans are the only signicant dietary source of these compounds. Isoavone content in soybeans can range from 0.4 mg to
9.5 mg of total isoavones per gram, which can be inuenced by
genetics, crop year and growth location [1719]. More importantly,
these compounds have shown several in vitro and in vivo benecial
properties consistent with the potential soybean effects on health.
There are several possible mechanisms of action by which
isoavones may act on disease prevention, including estrogenic/
anti-estrogenic activity, cell anti-proliferation, induction of cellcycle arrest and apoptosis, prevention of oxidation, antiinammatory, regulation of the host immune system, and changes
in cellular signaling [7,2028]. The actual mechanisms in the human
organism have not been fully established and metabolism may play
an important role. Furthermore, besides of evidence of available
epidemiological or intervention studies and in vitro observations,
there are several reports indicating that several of the specic
potential soybean health benets are linked to isoavone intake
[8,2932].
However, there is still controversy and an unanimous position
about if isoavones, other soy phytochemicals or components are
responsible for the health benets of soy consumption is still far
from being reached. Because the data in humans are not conclusive for any of these possible benets, it is important to conduct
more studies investigating isoavones and soy foods in the diet to
health outcomes. An accurate food composition database is crucial for such studies. That is the reason why there is an increasing
interest of scientists focused in developing newer extraction and
analysis methods for the characterization of soybean functional
components, especially isoavones, and about the relationships
between their consumption and benecial health effects in
humans.
Isoavones are a subclass of avonoids and are also described
as phytoestrogen compounds, since they exhibit estrogenic activ-
collection and/or preparation and analysis. Proper sample preservation ensures that the sample retains its physical and chemical
characteristics from the time it is collected to the time it is analyzed.
Sample preparation may consist of multiple steps such as
drying, homogenization, sieving, extraction of target compounds,
pre-concentration, hydrolysis and derivatization. Sample preparation can seek several objectives: to increase the efciency of an
assay procedure, to eliminate or reduce potential interferences, to
enhance the sensitivity of the analytical procedure by increasing
the concentration of the analyte in the assay mixture, and sometimes to transform the analyte of interest to a more suitable form
that can be easily separated, detected, and/or quantied. Isoavone
determination is complex since its concentration in the sample
depends of several variables which may difcult the determination.
Overall, the ultimate goal is to obtain a concentrated extract with
all isoavones and free of interfering compounds from the matrix
[6466].
The quantication of isoavones in solid samples is usually performed by extracting isoavones from the food matrix using a
certain solvent and then analyzing the extract by one of the several analysis techniques available, including gas chromatography,
high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and immunoassay, among others. The most used analysis technique is, without
doubt, reverse-phase HPLC using C18 based columns with water
and methanol or acetonitrile containing small amounts of acid as
the mobile phase.
The extraction phase is extremely important and the process
will depend of analyte liberation from the matrix, which will allow
quantitative determinations of target compounds. Moreover, the
extract should mimetic the original isoavone composition and
prole as much as possible. For the efcient extraction several
parameters should be dened like the solvent, temperature, sample
amount and time.
Optimization of the extraction conditions is normally accomplished using the classical one-variable-at-a-time method, in which
the optimization is directly assessed by systematic alteration of
one variable, while the others are kept constant. Some authors
use experimental designs for the determination of interactions
between parameters and selecting the most suitable extraction
conditions while minimizing the number of experiments. In the
experimental design strategies the values of all the factors under
study are varied in each assay in a programmed and rational way. It
is thus possible to detect the inuencing factors while the number
of trials can be kept to a minimum [67,68].
3. Sample stability
Fig. 2. Most common steps for sample preparation for the determination of soy
isoavones.
ticularly difcult to separate from each other (i.e. MGi, AGly and
De) [81], while others (i.e. malonyl and acetyl isoavones), due
their relative unstable character, are not widely commercially available. Coelution of other substances present in the extracts may also
add difculty to the troublesome determination of soy isoavones.
Furthermore, some isoavones might occur in as yet unidentied
forms.
A possible solution to these analytical problems is to perform
adequate sample treatment involving hydrolysis in order to reduce
the number of isoavone chemical forms occurring in the sample.
The hydrolysis procedure itself can be carried out before, during
or after the extraction using different conditions and agents. There
are two main procedures to perform the hydrolysis of isoavones
reported in the literature, basic or acidic hydrolysis. Basic hydrolysis
act on ester bonds, removing acid groups that are linked to the sugar
moiety of the isoavone glucosides. As a result, the malonyl and
acetyl glucoside isoavone forms are converted to their respective
glucosides. Acid hydrolysis breaks the bond between the isoavone
and the glucoside moieties, transforming all the isoavone derivatives, into their aglycone forms [82].
Although reaction times and temperatures for the acidic hydrolysis conditions vary a great deal, these procedures usually involve
treating the extract or food sample itself with inorganic acid (HCl)
at high temperatures in aqueous or alcoholic solvents with reaction
times ranging from a few minutes to several hours. Basic hydrolysis
entails treating the sample with a solution of NaOH and allowing
standing at room temperature from a few minutes to overnight
[8287].
Hydrolysis through the use of enzymes or a combination of
enzyme and acid [88,89] has also been used, although these
methods are less frequently used than acid or basic hydrolysis. The enzymatic hydrolysis consists of incubating the sample
with enzymes for long periods of time, ranging from a few hours
to overnight. Different enzymes have been used for the hydrolysis of isoavones, including endougenous soy -glucosidases,
-glucuronidases, sulfatases and cellulases. Similarly to basic and
acid hydrolysis, conditions vary a great deal and several different
methods have been reported [8893].
There are advantages and disadvantages with the use of
hydrolytic methods. The most obvious disadvantage is the inclusion
of an additional step, with the inherent complication of the sample
preparation procedure and the possible added analytical variability. Also, there is indication that Ge is not entirely stable under acid
hydrolysis conditions [93]. The limited information obtained using
hydrolytic methods can also be decisive, since only a few chemical forms are quantied, while using non-hydrolytic methods full
information can be accessed.
Although the hydrolysis step creates new questions with respect
with sample preparation, analyte stability and recoverability, it
greatly simplies the analysis by reducing the number of derivatives. The chromatographic analysis time is considerably shorter
and separation of target compounds is easier since there are fewer
compounds occurring in the sample. Acid hydrolysis results in the
inclusion in the quantication of isoavones that are linked to sugars other than glucose, and of glucosides of isoavones that are
not commercially available or difcult to acquire. Acid hydrolysis
is useful for the analysis of complex samples, and may be used
to identify sugar-isoavones by comparison of these results with
those from basic hydrolysis. The analysis of acid hydrolyzed extracts
is preferred when analyzing samples of unknown origin, because
it includes in the quantication the glucoside derivatives of all
isoavones available only as aglycones [82].
Moreover, the use of hydrolytic methods may reduce the analytical variability caused by stability issues during extraction since the
most unstable isoavones (malonyl glucosides) are not quantied
Table 1
Developed methods and evaluated parameters using conventional techniques for the extraction of isoavones from soybeans and soy foods.
Sample used for evaluation of the method
Defatted soybeans
Isoavones
Evaluated parameters
Solvent:
EtOH, 50% EtOH, 80% EtOH
MeOH, 50% MeOH, 80% MeOH
CH3 CN
Ethyl acetate
Selected conditions
Reference
80% MeOH, 4 h
[78]
[99]
[42]
Extraction time: 15 h
Technique: Wrist-action shaker
Sample: 5 g
Toasted defatted soy akes
Technique: Stirring
Sample: 2 g,
Solvent: 1222 mL (12 mL
CH3 CN + 2 mL HCl 0.1N + water)
Solvent:
Different amounts of water
(010 mL) added to the solvent
(CH3 CN)
Extraction time: 2 h
Temperature: RT
Soy protein
Solvent: 19 mL (10 mL
solvent + 2 mL (HCl 0.1N or
water) + 7 mL water
Extraction time: 2 h
Temperature: RT
Technique: Stirring
Sample: 2 g,
Solvent:
80% MeOH and 80% CH3 CN
(0.1% HCl)
Extraction time: 1, 2 and 24 h
Temperature: RT, 60 C and
80 C
Solvent:
10 mL CH3 CN + 6 mL
H2 O + 0.5 mL DMSO (IS)
10 mL CH3 CN + 2 mL HCl
0.1 M + 5 mL H2 O
80% MeOH
Water % (10100% CH3 CN)
Solvent:
53% CH3 CN, 53% ACE, 53%
EtOH, 53% MeOH
With and without acid addition
Solvent:
83% CH3 CN, 83% CH3 CN (+0.1N
HCl)
1 h,
RT
[73]
10 mL CH3 CN + 6 mL
H2 O + 0.5 mL DMSO (IS)
[104]
[102]
Extraction time: 2 h
Solvent:
MeOH, 80% MeOH, 80% MeOH
(HCl)
ChroloformMeOH (90:10),
80% chroloformMeOH (90:10),
80% chroloformMeOH (90:10)
(HCl)
CH3 CN, 80% CH3 CN, 80%
CH3 CN (HCl)
ACE, 80% ACE and 80% ACE
(HCl)
Soybeans
Solvent: 12 mL
Extraction time: 2 h
[105]
50% EtOH, 60 C
[106]
[107]
Proposed method
[103]
99.99% EtOH,
3:1 mL g1 , 80 C and
8h
[20]
Temperature: RT
Freeze-dried soybeans
Soybean our
Ge and De
Solvent:
CH3 CN (3070%)
EtOH (3070%)
MeOH (3070%)
Temperature: 10 and 60 C
Technique: Shaking
Sample: 2 g
Solvent: 10 mL
Solvent:
80% CH3 CNHCl 0.1N
80% MeOH
Extraction time: 2 h
Temperature: RT
80% EtOH
Number of extractions: 1 and 5
Technique: homogenization
probe and hand agitation
Sample: 0.1 g
Solvent: 4 mL (80% MeOH)
(homogenization) + 1 mL
(agitation)
Extraction time: 1 min
(homogenization) + 30 min
(agitation)
Temperature: RT
(homogenization) and 70 C
(agitation)
Technique: stirring
Solvent: 4 mL (80% MeOH)
(Homogenization) + 1 mL
(agitation)
Extraction time: 1 min
(homogenization) + 30 min
(agitation)
Temperature: RT
(Homogenization) and 70 C
(agitation)
Soybean our
Technique: Stirring
Sample: 0.5 g
Solvent: 25 mL
Extraction time: 10 min
De: daidzein, Ge: genistein, Gle: glycitein, Di: daidzin, Gi: genistin, Gly: glycitin, MDi: malonyl daidzin, MGi: malonyl genistin, MGly: malonyl glycitin, ADi: acetyl daidzin, AGi: acetyl genistin, AGly: acetyl glycitin, MeOH:
methanol, EtOH: ethanol, CH3 CN: acetonitrile, RT: room temperature.
a
Tentatively identied by literature.
10
certain amount of water could optimize the total extraction. Extraction conditions were optimized for each soy sample. The amount of
water had a signicant effect of the amount of isoavone extracted
and varied with the food extracted. The amount of water optimized,
depending of the food matrix, ranged from 5 mL to 10 mL (isolate,
10 mL; tofu, 10 mL, soybeans, 7 mL, miso, 5 mL) using 2 g samples.
Also, the question of which extraction solvent is more efcient
is difcult to answer since it will depend of several factors such
as the technique, sample, amount of water, time, sample:solvent
ratios, temperature, etc. For example, while Murphy [99] observed
that 80% MeCN (with and without acid) was more efcient than 80%
MeOH (with and without acid), Barnes et al. [78] did not observe
signicant differences between 80% MeOH and acidied 80% MeCN
for the extraction of isoavones from toasted soy our toasted soy
our using a different solvent to sample ratio.
Later, Grifth and Collison [104] proposed an improved procedure for the extraction of isoavones from different soy samples
using 60% MeCN with 3% dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) (v/v) and
compared this solvent with 80% MeOH. This procedure was also
compared with the modied Murphy [99] method used by Song
et al. [101]. 80% MeOH was less efcient than MeCN (with and
without acidication + DMSO) in extracting most isoavones and
differences between MeCN solvents (with and without acidication + DMSO) were smaller, with the primary difference in the
extraction efciency of more hydrophobic isoavones (AGi, Ge, De
and Gle).
Afterwards, different water proportions of the extraction solvent were tested and 60% MeCN proved to be the most efcient
solvent for two different soy protein samples (high and low in malonyl isoavones). It was also observed an improvement (0.710.6%)
in the extraction efciency of different isoavones from soy samples extracted with DMSO. The authors suggested that marginal
increase in isoavone content might be attributed to the lack of
acid or to the presence of small quantity of DMSO. It is clear that
more research is still needed to evaluate the inuence of DMSO
on extraction efciency of isoavones and examine the observations reported in this study. Another interesting result was the small
effect of extraction time and the observation that the vast majority
of isoavones were extracted in the rst 5 min of extraction. This
is strong evidence that the extraction time of similar methods can
be drastically reduced from 2 h and this parameter can be further
optimized.
Following the matter about the choice of the extraction solvent,
Murphy et al. [102], reviewed the extraction method and further
investigated MeCN, EtOH, ACE and MeOH in a 53% aqueous solution with and without acid addition using the same method and
concluded that MeCN was more efcient than the other solvents
and that MeOH was the least efcient solvent in extracting the
12 main isoavone forms in raw soy our, tofu, tempeh, texturized vegetable protein and soy germ. They also observed that the
different solvents have different abilities to extract the different
isoavone forms and that the food matrix conguration may have
an important impact on the extractability of the isoavone forms.
Depending of the sample, some solvents may underestimate individual isoavone content up to 35% and total isoavones up to 20%.
Another important remark was that addition of acid reduced the
extracted amount of some isoavones and increased the extraction
of others depending of the sample matrix. The authors suggested
that in order to simplify the extraction protocol, it is probably better
not to use acid in the extraction medium for these food matrices.
In fact, the addition of small quantities of acid to the extracting
solvent used by Murphy et al. [41,42,99,100] have been questioned
since no clear differences or systematic pattern for all foods or for
all isoavone forms have been demonstrated and as evidenced by
Grifth and Collison [104].
The initial purpose for the addition of small amount of acid was
to increase the extraction efciency and minimize coextractives
and give clean HPLC chromatograms. However, in the initial report
[99], non-acidied MeCN extracted lower amounts of coextractives
with similar efciency than acidied MeCN. Therefore, the use of
acidied MeCN seems not to make sense.
Further evidence is provided by Lin and Giusti [105], who evaluated the effects of solvent polarity and acidity on the extraction
efciency of isoavones from soybeans. In this report, acidied
solvents either extracted signicantly (p < 0.05) lower amounts
of isoavones or did not signicantly differ from solvents without acid. Non-acidied solvents were more efcient in extracting
malonyl isoavones. For glucosides isoavones, the acidication
showed a less signicant effect on Gi and Gly and no relevant effect
on Di. Also, no remarkable effect of acidication was found in the
extraction of AGi and aglycones (Ge and De).
The differences in the total isoavones obtained between acidied and non-acidied solvents mainly reected the differences in
malonyl isoavones. This may, in part, explain the results obtained
in the rst report of Murphy [99] regarding the use of acidied
solvents, since malonyl isoavones were not measured in this study.
Moreover, a signicant polarityacidity interaction was found
for aglycone extraction, which suggests that the effect of the acid
was not the same in the solvents with different polarities. Another
important observation was that acidication of the extraction solvent favored isoavone transformations during the extraction and
therefore should be avoided for quantication of intact isoavones
[105].
Regarding the extraction efciency of the solvents, results indicated that for all glucoside isoavones the solvent with higher
polarity (58% MeCN) either extracted signicantly higher amounts
or did not signicantly differ from the assayed solvents with lower
polarity (80% MeOH and 83% MeCN). The differences between 58%
MeCN (most polar) and 83% MeCN (least polar) were important in
terms of extraction efciency of individual and total isoavones.
However, differences between 58% MeCN and 80% MeOH or
between 80% MeOH and 83% MeCN were not always relevant.
On average, 58% MeCN extracted signicantly higher amounts
of malonyl glucosides than 80% MeOH and 83% MeCN. Recoveries of aglycones, Ge and De with 80% MeOH resulted signicantly
lower than those obtained with the other evaluated solvents. The
differences in measured isoavones between solvents with various
polarities reected the differences in malonyl glucosides, because
malonyl glucosides was the major form of isoavones in the soybeans and it was most affected by solvent polarity.
Therefore, solvents with relatively higher polarity and no acid
were more efcient in general for extracting isoavones. Among
the six examined solvents, 58% MeCN without acidication was
the best solvent for the extraction of isoavones from soybeans,
since it yielded the highest total amounts and best maintained the
intact structures. With regard to the two most widely used solvent systems, 80% MeOH had a higher extraction efciency and
better protection against chemical transformation than acidied
83% MeCN.
These results are in agreement with those reported by Rostagno
et al. [106] who compared different solvents for the extraction
of isoavones glucosides and MGi from soybeans. These authors
observed that when using pure solvents, low extraction efciency was obtained and that the maximum amount extracted was
obtained using solvents with 4060% of water. They also observed
that temperature has a great impact on the extraction efciency of
isoavones. Rostagno et al. [106] also reported that most isoavones
present in the sample (8090%) were extracted in the rst 10 min
of extraction at 60 C using 50% EtOH, corroborating similar observations reported by Grifth and Collison [104].
11
12
during extraction is essential. Frequently, authors tend to overextend extraction duration in order to achieve higher extraction
yields. This strategy, however, may cause not only degradation of
some chemical forms, but also the generation of other isoavones
forms and isomers that can drastically modify isoavone prole of
the sample and inuence the results obtained. Thus, although long
extraction times have been extensively used for the extraction of
isoavone from soy and other matrixes, there are still several issues
that should be addressed such as the stability during extraction.
Extraction of isoavones from foods or dietary supplements
is a critical process since isoavone prole can be altered during sample preparation since mild heat and acid are frequently
involved in the extraction, which could cause degradation of malonyl isoavones and the hydrolysis of glucosides. Therefore, when
choosing the extraction conditions it is important not only consider extraction efciency, but also avoid, or at least minimize, the
articial transformations. Thus, temperature conditions during the
extraction procedures as well as extraction duration have to be
carefully adjusted because of possible degradation of the glucoside derivatives. Also, stability may be related to the solvent used,
specially acidied solvents.
One of the earlier observations of the inuence of the extraction temperature on the isoavone prole was reported by Kudou
et al. [39]. They observed that malonyl isoavone glucosides in
70% alcohol extracts from both soybean hypocotyls and cotyledons
decreased signicantly as their respective glucosides increased
when the samples were extracted at 80 C instead of room temperature.
The effects of extraction temperature on isoavone prole were
later conrmed by Barnes et al. [78]. They observed that extractions
performed at 60 C caused heat induced de-esterifying reaction of
malonyl and acetyl glucosides to their respective glucosides and
that increasing temperature to 80 C led to higher conversion rate.
Moreover, the changes on isoavones prole were not only due
to temperature variations, but also time dependent. Even at room
temperature malonyl glucosides were gradually converted to their
respective glucosides. The conversion rate at room temperature
was later reported to be between 0.2 mol% and 0.3 mol% per hour
[42]. Obviously, extraction methods using long extraction times can
signicantly underestimate malonyl glucoside concentration and
overestimate glucoside concentration.
Coward et al. [71] evaluated the effect of the temperature on the
extraction of isoavones from soy foods. Isoavone -glucosides
conjugates were extracted with 80% MeOH from soybeans at room
temperature, at 4 C and at 80 C, for 272 h by tumbling or shaking.
Quantitative and reproducible recovery of the isoavone glucosides
was achieved after 2 h. Extraction at 4 C gave the highest concentration of malonyl glucosides and the lowest concentration of
-glucosides conjugates. Extraction at 80 C caused extensive conversion of the malonyl glucosides conjugates to the -glucoside
conjugates but not to the acetyl conjugates or aglycones. Although
the composition of the individual -glucosides was drastically
altered by temperature, the total amount of isoavones extracted
was constant.
On another study, Franke et al. [93] evaluated the stability
of De, Ge, coumestrol, formononetin, biochanin A and avone
under reuxing for 4 h using acidied 77% EtOH (2.0 M HCl) and
observed that only avone was entirely stable. Therefore, it is clear
that reuxing is not recommendable for extraction of isoavones
from soybeans and soy foods, since it can cause losses, even if
hydrolytic methods are used. However, this may be related to the
use of acidied solvent as reported by Lin and Giusti [105], who
later observed the transformation of -glucosides to their corresponding aglycones and transformation of acetylglucosides to
their corresponding -glucosides when subjected to extraction by
13
14
Table 2
Developed methods using ultrasounds for the extraction of soy isoavones and evaluated parameters.
Sample used for evaluation
of the method
Freeze-dried soybeans
Isoavones
Fixed extraction
conditions
Solvent: 25 mL
Vibration
amplitude: 100%
Sample: 2 g
Solvent: 10 mL
Temperature: 22 C
Ultrasound source:
ultrasonic bath
Evaluated parameters
Solvent:
EtOH (3070%)
MeOH (3070%)
CH3 CN (3070%)
Temperature: 10 and 60 C
Sample amount: 0.50.1 g
Extraction time: 530 min
Ultrasound source: ultrasonic probe and
ultrasonic bath
Solvent:
80% EtOH
80% MeOH
Selected conditions
Reference
[106]
[107]
Soy our
De and Ge
Sample: 1 g
(ultrasonic bath)
and 2 g (ultrasonic
homogenizer)
Solvent: 25 mL
(ultrasonic bath)
and 45 mL
(ultrasonic
homogenizer)
Temperature: RT
(ultrasonic
homogenizer)
Solvent:
EtOH
MeOH
CH3 CN (50100%)
60% CH3 CN
Ultrasonic bath: 50 C,
40 min
Ultrasonic homogenizer:
30 min, and 60% vibration
amplitude, pulse generator
(not specied)
[129]
Stability of isoavones during UAE has not been apparently studied to the moment. With the available evidence that relatively short
extraction times can affect isoavone prole and content, assessment of the inuence of ultrasounds on isoavone degradation is
of one of the most urging needs in future research in this eld. The
effect of extraction solvent, temperature, ultrasound intensity and
frequency on stability of soy isoavones during UAE and the search
of effective ways to avoid degradation need to be further examined
in detail in future investigations.
5.1.2.2. Pressurized liquid extraction. Pressurized liquid extraction
is a procedure that combines elevated temperature (50200 C)
and pressure (100140 atm) with liquid solvents (without their
critical point being reached) to achieve fast and efcient extraction of the analytes from the solid and semi-solid samples matrix.
This technique has received different names, such as accelerated
solvent extraction (ASE), pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) and
pressurized solvent extraction (PSE). When water is employed as
the extraction solvent, the authors tend to use a different name,
such as superheated water extraction (SWE), to highlight the use
of this environmental-friendly solvent.
For rapid and efcient extraction of analytes from solid matrices, extraction temperature is an important experimental factor.
Elevated temperatures can lead to signicant improvements in
extraction efciency, since it may increase solubility of target
compounds, diffusion rates and mass transfer of analytes to the solvent. Moreover, temperature can dramatically modify the relative
permittivity of the extracting solvent, increasing selectivity. High
pressure allows maintaining the solvent in a liquid state at high
temperature and may increase the penetration of the solvent in the
sample matrix. Extractions performed under elevated temperature
and pressure results in adequate kinetics of dissolution processes
and favors desorption of analytes from the surface and active sites
of solid sample matrices [67,113,114,131,132].
PLE has been used in several occasions to extract isoavones
from soybeans, soy foods and other different matrixes such as Radix
puerariae, Matricaria recutita, Rosmarinus ofcinalis, Foeniculum vulgare and Agrimonia eupatoria L. [109,121,129,133140]. An overview
of the developed methods using pressurized liquids for the extraction of soy isoavones and evaluated parameters is presented in
Table 3.
The same principles of isoavone stability during extraction
using conventional techniques also apply when using PLE. The use
of high temperatures can strongly affect isoavone content and
prole as previously discussed in Section 3. In the case of PLE
however, temperatures used are much higher than those used in
conventional methods and thus it can expected that the extend of
degradation and transformations taking place during extraction are
much more important.
Rostagno et al. [109] evaluated the inuence of several extraction parameters, such as solvent, temperature, pressure, sample
size, static extraction cycle length and number of static extraction cycles in order to optimize extraction conditions to achieve
quantitative recoveries of isoavone from freeze-dried soybeans.
They observed that using EtOH/water mixtures, extraction efciency increased when increasing the water percentage in the
extraction solvent from 0% to 30%, and that higher amount of
water in the extraction solvent resulted in a lower extraction
efciency. Similar results were obtained for MeOH/water mixtures, and the highest extraction efciency was achieved using 60%
MeOH. Water extracted the lowest amount of isoavones between
assayed solvents. They also reported that increasing the extraction temperature from 60 C to 150 C increased the yield of most
isoavones (except the malonyl forms) and identied a degradation pattern. The increase in the extraction temperature from 60 C
to 100 C increased the total amount of isoavones extracted in
approximately 20%. The increase of the yield of isoavone glucosides with the increase of temperature between 100 C and
150 C was very pronounced (approximately 30%) while the yield
of malonyl isoavones decreased (approximately 50%), when it
was expected to follow the same trend as the glucoside forms and
increase.
Searching for answers, a stability evaluation of extraction conditions was performed which conrmed that degradation starts
above 100 C for the malonyl forms and above 150 C for the
isoavone glucosides. Above 100 C, with the decrease of MGi, a
correspondent increase in Gi concentration was observed. Concentration of other glucosides also increased at this temperature.
Aglycone levels remained constant below 150 C indicating that
degradation of glucosides was not taking place below this temperature. Above 150 C, aglycone levels showed a small increase
with the decrease in their respective glucoside levels, indicating the
conversion between these chemical forms. The stability study conrmed the observations made during the extraction temperature
optimization, indicating that 100 C is the maximum temperature
for PLE of isoavones. It was also reported that the increase of pressure from 100 atm to 200 atm did not have a signicant impact on
the extraction of isoavones from freeze-dried soybeans, and that
reducing sample size (from 0.5 g to 0.05 g) increased the yield of
isoavones in approximately 13%. However, relative standard devi-
15
16
Table 3
Developed methods using pressurized liquids for the extraction of soy isoavones and evaluated parameters.
Sample used for
evaluation of the
method
Freeze-dried soybeans
Soy bits
Isoavones
Evaluated parameters
Extraction cell: 11 mL
Inert material: sea sand
Solvent:
EtOH (3080%)
MeOH (3080%)
Water
Temperature: 60 and 200 C
Selected conditions
Reference
[109]
[135]
[134]
[129]
[139]
[140]
Soybeans
Soybean our
De and Ge
Solvent:
58% CH3 CN, 58% CH3 CN + 5% DMSO
70% EtOH, 70% EtOH + 5% DMSO
90% MeOH
Temperature: 100 C
Static cycle length: 5 min
Number of static cycles: 3
Water
95% Genapol
Sample amount: 2 g
Temperature: 100 C
Defatted soybean
akes
Defatted soybean
akes
Temperature: 60130 C
Pressure: 300735 psig
Extraction time: 13 h
Extraction cell: 2 L
Temperature: 333393 K
Pressure: 4134410 kPa
Solvent ow rate: 1025 mL/min
under PLE above 100 C (using 70% EtOH), and a similar dramatic
increase on the yield of glucosides was observed at 150 C, part
of the effect of increasing the temperature in the increase of the
extraction yield of glucosides may be attributed to degradation of
malonyl isoavones. Corroborating evidence is that yield of glucoside decreased when extractions were performed above 145 C, as
reported by Rostagno et al. [109]. Therefore, the proposed method
may not be able to extract all isoavones and more importantly,
without changing the isoavone prole of the sample. The same
method with slight modication (i.e. sonication time of 5 min
instead of 1 min) was used for evaluation of isoavone aglycone
and glucoside distribution in soy plants and soybeans by Klejdus et
al. [136].
Also, Klejdus et al. [137] improved the previous method and used
a two phase PLE extraction program combined with UAE to extract
isoavones from soy bits. In the rst PLE phase, the sample was
extracted with 2 cycles of 5 min each with hexane at 145 C using
145 bar of pressure, followed by a second phase of 2 cycles of 5 min
each with 90% MeOH at 145 C using 145 bar of pressure. This is an
interesting approach since it allows cleaning the sample and performing the extraction of target compounds without manipulation
of sample, avoiding the associated errors. However, the same stability issues of the original method [136] persist in the improved
method.
Later, Luthria et al. [134] using the method developed by
Rostagno et al. [109], compared several extraction solvents (58%
MeCN, 70% EtOH, 90% MeOH, Water and 95% Genapol) and
evaluated the inuence of the addition of 5% DMSO to the
extraction solvent for the extraction of isoavones from soybeans. They observed great differences between assayed solvent.
Both, the total isoavone content and the isoavone HPLC prole
varied signicantly with different extraction solvents, achieving
highest total isoavone recoveries from soybean samples with
DMSO:EtOH:water. 58% ACN extracted only 30.5% of the isoavones
extracted with DMSO:EtOH:water. With the addition of DMSO to
58% ACN improved extraction to 52.3%. The addition of DMSO to
70% EtOH also improved extraction efciency, while 90% MeOH
achieved intermediate yields (83.7%). Very low efciency was
obtained with genapol or water (18.2% and 13.7%, respectively).
However, since extraction conditions used were optimized by
Rostagno et al. [109] for 70% EtOH, it was expected that the maximum efciency was obtained using DMSO:EtOH:water (5:70:25)
and EtOH:water (70:30). On the other hand, useful information
is provided by the improvement of extraction by DMSO. A possible explanation to the improvement of the extraction efciency
was attributed to the solubility of isoavones in DMSO reported
by SigmaAldrich web site (http://www.sigma-aldrich.com). The
authors also observed important differences among assayed solvents. 90% MeOH extracted the highest amount of glucosides (Gi,
Di and Gly) and while for the other nine isoavones the best
solvent was DMSO:EtOH:water (5:70:25). This may explain the
results obtained by Klejdus et al. [135], achieving best yields
with MeOH than with EtOH, since only glucosides and aglycones
were quantied. An interesting observation was the detection
of all 12 isoavones by only two extraction solvent mixtures
(DMSO:EtOH:water (5:70:25) and (DMSO:MeCN:water (5:70:25)).
De and MGly were not extracted at detectable levels by the other
solvents. Similarly, Klejdus et al. [136] extracted only trace amounts
of De (1.2% of total isoavones) and did not detect MGly when using
90% MeOH.
In contrast, Bajer et al. [129] observed that out of three solvents
tested (MeOH, MeCN and ACE) MeCN gave the highest yields at
100 C. However, extraction was evaluated for some aglycones (De
and Ge only) and the use of a certain amount of water in the extraction solvent was very likely to have inuenced the results obtained.
After the pressure was optimized in the range of 515 MPa, the
number of cycles and extraction time were also optimized using
MeCN. Unfortunately, data regarding the method optimization and
of the inuence of the extracting variables were not given.
With a different optimization strategy, Li-Hsun et al. [139] used a
steepest ascent design to examine the effect of several independent
variables (temperature, pressure and duration) on the extraction of
isoavones from defatted soybean akes by superheated water at
elevated pressures. They observed that temperature has a greater
impact than pressure and then time, in the extraction of isoavones
using water. The experimental design revealed that the optimal
condition for the extraction of isoavones was 110 C and 641 psig
(4520 kPa) for 2.3 h using 180 g of sample and 1800 mL of water.
When extractions were carried out at higher or lower temperature,
or with lower pressure, the total amount of isoavones decreased.
The authors concluded that the decreasing dielectric constant ()
of water at elevated temperature and pressure might play an
important role for the enhanced extraction of isoavones. This
is indication that the dramatic changes in the physicalchemical
properties of water, especially in its dielectric constant, at elevated
temperatures and pressures enhance its usefulness as extraction
solvent.
The low extraction efciency of water observed by Rostagno et
al. [109] when compared to the above results can be explained by
the use of a lower temperature (60 C), which is not high enough to
change the dielectric constant of water and increase its effective-
17
18
In general, it is clear that at higher temperatures extraction efciency tend to increase, independently of the solvent employed and
pressure is usually a minor variable (except when using water as
solvent) for the resulting efciency and that it is only required to
maintain the solvent in the liquid phase. Another important aspect
of PLE is the stability of isoavones under extraction conditions.
Since some isoavone are very sensitive to temperature and PLE
is performed at elevated temperatures, stability may be the limiting factor when using PLE for the extraction without changing the
isoavones prole of the sample. However, this may be considered
as positive in the case of hydrolytic methods (see Section 4). To date
no hydrolytic method using PLE has been reported and the potential changes in isoavone prole using high temperatures can be
explored in future investigations. Also, the inuence of the sample properties, such as particle size, protein content and enzymatic
activity and its relation with extraction efciency and isoavone
stability should be investigated in more detail.
5.1.2.3. Supercritical uid extraction. Supercritical uid extraction
is the process of separating one component (the extractant) from
another (the matrix) using supercritical uids as the extracting solvent. A supercritical uid is any substance at a temperature and
pressure above its thermodynamic critical point. They can penetrate samples of plant material almost as well as gases, due to
their high diffusion coefcients and low viscosity. At the same time,
their dissolving power is similar to liquids. Additionally, close to
the critical point, small changes in pressure or temperature result
in large changes in density, allowing many properties to be modied and to obtain selective extraction. The most commonly used
extracting agent is carbon dioxide (CO2 ), because of its low cost, low
toxicity, and easily reachable critical parameters (31.1 C/74.8 atm).
Furthermore, CO2 as a non-polar substance is able of dissolving
non-polar or moderately polar compounds. The addition of a polar
modier (e.g. MeOH) to supercritical CO2 (SC-CO2 ) is the simplest
and most effective way to modify the polarity of CO2 -based uids in order to increase the solubility of analytes. Modiers can
also overcome interactions between the analyte and the matrix,
increasing the extraction efciency of polar organic compounds
[113,114,132,141143].
Although SFE is one of the most complex technique for the
extraction of isoavones due to the high number of possible
variables and interactions, which can effect effectiveness, several
researchers successfully applied SFE to extract isoavones from different soy matrixes such as soy our, soy hypocotyls and soy cake, as
well as from other different matrices, like R. puerariae, M. recutita,
R. ofcinalis, F. vulgare and A. eupatoria L. [91,92,118,129,144,145].
An overview of the developed methods using supercritical uids
for the extraction of soy isoavones and evaluated parameters is
presented in Table 4.
As in most modern techniques and methods, stability of
isoavones under extraction conditions has not been studied so far.
This is important since relatively high temperatures are frequently
used. The same stability principles of the previously discussed techniques may apply to SFE and thus it is feasible to consider that
changes in isoavone proles can take place during extraction.
Therefore, evaluation of stability of isoavones using different SFE
conditions, such as temperature, duration and amount and type of
modier is urgently needed.
Regarding the methods developed so far, Chandra et al. [145]
tested a limited number of conditions with different pressures and
amount and type of modier for the extraction of some isoavones
(De and Ge) from various soy matrixes. The evaluation of the
extraction conditions revealed that at 50 C, 600 atm and 20% EtOH
extracted the highest amount of tested isoavones (nearly 93%).
It is worth noting that the development of the method was per-
19
Table 4
Developed methods using supercritical uids for the extraction of soy isoavones and evaluated parameters.
Sample used for evaluation
of the method
Standards
Isoavones
Evaluated parameters
Selected conditions
Reference
De and Ge
Extraction conditions:
400 atm and no modier
400 atm and 5% chloroform
400 atm and 5% MeOH
600 atm and 20% MeOH
600 atm and 20% EtOH
[145]
Sample amount: 1 g
Extraction cell: 7.0 mL (reduced to
5.46 mL)
Inert material: glass stick
Modier: 70% MeOH
Static cycle length: 10 min
Freeze-dried soybeans
Gi, Ge and De
Soybean hypocotyls
De and Ge
Temperature: 5080 C
Soybean our
De and Ge
Extraction cell: 1 L
[118]
Sample amount: 1 g
Extraction cell: 10 mL
Modier: 70% EtOH
Modier concentration: 10 mol%a
Soybean cake
Malonyl glucosides,
glucosides and TIS:
60 C/350 bar
Acetyl glucosides and
aglucones:
80 C/350 bar
[92]
[93]
35 MPa, 70 C, 5%
MeOH, 30 min, 50 m
[129]
40 C, 50 MPa,
9.80 kg/h, 80% MeOH at
7.8% mass, 2030
mesh, 200 min
[147]
CO2 ow rate:
3.929.80 kg/h
Sample particle size: 1060
mesh
Extraction time: 0200 min
De: daidzein, Ge: genistein, Gle: glycitein, Di: daidzin, Gi: genistin, Gly: glycitin, MDi: malonyl daidzin, MGi: malonyl genistin, MGly: malonyl glycitin, ADi: acetyl daidzin,
AGi: acetyl genistin, AGly: acetyl glycitin, TIS: total isoavones, MeOH: methanol, EtOH: ethanol, CH3 CN: acetonitrile, n.e: not specied.
a
mol% of the CO2 mass passed through the system during the dynamic extraction.
20
21
22
Table 5
Developed methods using microwaves for the extraction of soy isoavones and evaluated parameters.
Sample used for evaluation
of the method
Freeze-dried soybeans
Isoavones
Fixed extraction
conditions
Solvent: 25 mL
Microwave power:
500 W
Magnetic stirring: 50%
nominal power
Evaluated parameters
Solvent:
Water
EtOH, 50% EtOH
MeOH, 50% MeOH
EtOH (3070%)
Selected conditions
Reference
[110]
Soybeans
600 W, 1 min, 3 mL of
80% CH3 CN, 12 M HCl
and no re-hydratation
time
[87]
The novelty of this work resides in its simplicity and rapidity when
treating a troublesome liquid sample without the need of freezedrying the sample before extraction. This report provides valuable
information although further evaluation of the inuence of other
extraction parameters, such as sample characteristics, ultrasound
frequency and power and the use of ultrasonic pulses is still needed
and will likely be explored in future investigations.
Another sample preparation technique that can be used for
extracting soy isoavones from liquid foods is solid phase extraction. SPE involves adsorption of sample components on the surface
of a solid sorbent, followed by elution with a selected solvent. A
variety of sorbents available in the market allows not only the isolation of analytes, but also the removal of interferences. However,
the whole potential of this technique for the analysis of isoavones
in foods is yet to be determined. Although SPE applications for the
analysis of isoavones from blood, plasma, urine and serum are
relatively common [155161], only a few works explored the SPE
potential for the analysis of isoavones from liquid samples.
Mitani et al. [162] for instance, proposed an automated on-line
in-tube solid phase microextraction (SPME) coupled to HPLC for
the determination of daidzein and genistein in soy foods. In-tube
SPME is a preconcentration technique using an open tubular fusedsilica capillary with an inner surface coating as the SPME device,
which can be easily coupled on-line with HPLC. In tube SPME allows
for convenient automation of the extraction process, which not
only shortens the analysis time, but also provides better accuracy,
precision and sensitivity relative to off-line manual techniques.
However, a hydrolysis step was required because the isoavone glucosides present in the sample were difcult to concentrate using
such conditions, which limit its usefulness for quantication of all
isoavone chemical forms. Moreover, since most isoavones are
in the suspended solids in liquid samples, it is very likely that an
extraction step before the in-tube SPME method will be required;
otherwise it will only separate isoavones present in the liquid
phase and may lead to an underestimation of isoavone concentrations.
Therefore, the greatest potential of this technique is the concentration and clean-up of extracts coupled to an extraction technique
such as PLE or SFE, or after the extraction procedure with one of the
previously discussed methods. It also may be used before extraction
to eliminate undesirable components of the sample and allowing a
more selective extraction of target compounds.
23
24
Table 6
Relative comparison of extraction techniques/methods.
Sample
Isoavones
Compared techniques/methods
Reference
Soy our
Soybean cake
Gi, Ge and De
Di, Gi, Gly, De, Ge, Gle, MDi, MGi,
MGly, ADi, AGi and AGly
De and Ge
Di, Gi, De and Ge
Di, Gi, Gly and MGi
Di, Gi, Gly, De, Ge, Gle, MDi, MGi,
MGly, ADi, AGi and AGly
Di, Gi, De and Ge
Di, Gi, Gly, Ononin, De, Gle and Ge
Gi, MGi, AGi and Ge
SFE/UAE/Soxhlet
SFE/Shaking
28/100/68
74/100
[118]
[92]
SFE/Stirring
SFE/Stirring
UAE/Stirring
PLE/UAE/Soxhlet/Shaker/Vortex/Stirring
26/100
87/100
100/85100b
100/93/68/71/66/70
[93]
[147]
[106]
[134]
PLE/UAE/Soxhlet/PLE + UAE
UAE/Soxhlet/PLE + UAE
PLE/Stirring
49/14/64/100
22/68/100
98100/88100c
[135]
[137]
[133]
UAE/UHOM/SFE/PLE/Soxhlet
MAE/UAE
100/93/16/71/69
100/100
[129]
[110]
Soybean hypocotyls
Soybean meal
Soybeans
Soybeans
Soy bits
Soy bits
Soy our, Meat substitute,
nuts and protein isolate
Soy our
Soy our
De and Ge
Di, Gi, Gly, De, Ge, Gle, MDi, MGi,
MGly, ADi, AGi and AGly
De: daidzein, Ge: genistein, Gle: glycitein, Di: daidzin, Gi: genistin, Gly: glycitin, MDi: malonyl daidzin, MGi: malonyl genistin, MGly: malonyl glycitin, ADi: acetyl daidzin,
AGi: acetyl genistin, AGly: acetyl glycitin, UHOM, Ultrasonic homogenizer.
a
Relative to the technique which extracted the highest amount of total isoavones.
b
Depending of the solvent used.
c
Depending of the sample used.
on PLE and UAE extracts. Shaking and stirring extracted the highest
amounts of malonyl isoavones (MDi and MGi) while PLE extracted
the highest amount of acetyl glucosides. Extraction conditions
(sample size, extraction length, number of extraction cycles and
temperature) used in the PLE procedure were point by point optimized by Rostagno et al. [109] while the other extraction methods
were not, and therefore is not surprising that PLE revealed to be the
most effective extraction technique.
Klejdus et al. [135] evaluated different techniques/methods (PLE,
UAE, soxhlet and PLE + UAE) for the extraction of isoavones (De,
Ge, Di and Gi) from soybean foods. PLE + UAE (1 min sonication)
extracted the highest amount of isoavones followed by soxhlet,
PLE and UAE, in this order. Soxhlet extracted the highest amount
of aglycones while PLE + UAE extracted the highest amount of glucosides. However, malonyl isoavones were not quantied and
stability was not accessed and the highest amount of isoavones
extracted by PLE, PLE + UAE and soxhlet than by UAE alone may be
partially attributed to degradation of malonyl isoavones leading
to their respective glucoside and aglycone forms.
Later, Klejdus et al. [137] evaluated soxhlet, UAE and PLE + UAE
for the extraction of isoavones from soy bits and obtained similar
results. In this case, however, sonication time before PLE was 5 min
instead of 1 min. The same stability issues of the later report also
apply here.
Downing et al. [133], compared PLE and the method developed
by Barnes et al. [78] using stirring. The method by Barnes et al.
[78] required 60 min, while the PLE procedure (performed at 80 C)
required 20 min to extract similar levels of genistein equivalents.
They observed signicant differences on the extraction of conjugated forms of genistein extracted by these two methods. Heat
during PLE caused signicantly less acetyl genistin to be present
in the extracts when compared with stirring where ambient temperature was used. However, this outcome was dependent of the
sample. In some soy our samples deesterication occurred and in
others not. Acetyl genistin was much more susceptible to degradation than malonyl genistin and degradation of the former only
occurred in one sample (soy nuts). The change in the forms of
genistein was attributed to heat-induced deesterication of the
acetylgenistin and malonyl genistin to genistin.
Bajer et al. [129] also evaluated different extraction methods
(UAE, ultrasonic homogenizer, SFE, PLE and soxhlet) for the extraction of De and Ge from soy our using optimized conditions. They
observed that the different isoavones present in the assayed
25
extraction and separation techniques. Also, PLE and SFE offers the
possibility of performing the extractions under an inert atmosphere
and protected from light, which represents an attractive advantage
since many compounds, are sensitive to these two external factors
[67,109]. However, some modern extraction techniques (MAE, PLE
and SFE) are not always available in the average laboratory, due to
the high cost of the equipment.
For the analysis of a particular sample with approximate knowledge of concentration and distribution of isoavones, such as for
routine quality control of similar soy ours, UAE can be used due
to its low cost and high efciency. In contrast, for the analysis
of different samples with unknown isoavone concentration and
distribution, PLE may be preferred since besides high efciency
it allows to easily perform reextractions of the sample. Thus, the
choice of an extraction technique will depend of several factors
besides efciency. Among these factors, implicit characteristic of
the techniques are particularly relevant such as instrumental cost,
level of automation and possibility of on-line coupling with analysis
technique. A good way to select an appropriate extraction technique
is to consider practical aspects and establish a multicriteria decision
making procedure using desirability function optimization.
6. Post-treatment of extracts
After extraction of isoavones from the sample matrix is performed, the extract can be submitted to a series of post-treatment
steps before the analysis. These procedures can be reduced to a
minimal depending of extraction technique used. After extraction,
insoluble materials are usually removed by ltration or centrifugation and sometimes, the extract are immediately analyzed without
further preparation. If extract is obtained using PLE or SFE ltration and centrifugation is not required. Also, several authors simply
pass the sample through 0.45 m lters after extraction and avoid
the centrifugation step [86,91,109,110,134,144,147,151]. The limitation of not using centrifugation is the difculty of correcting the
sample volume and solvent losses during ltration, especially with
small samples. This problem can be prevented by using an internal standard with the specic aim of correcting the sample volume
[81,106,109,110,151].
After ltration, liquidliquid extraction can be used to remove
undesired sample components such as the lipophilic components,
in order to preserve reverse phase chromatographic columns.
Hydrolysis of the extracts can also be used after the extraction using
the same methods discussed in Section 4.
Another common post-extraction procedure is the partial or
complete removal of the solvent by rotary evaporation and redissolution of the sample either on the mobile phase used for the
chromatographic analysis or in 80% MeOH [41,42,72,90,102,107,129,
133,135137,144,152].
This procedure can be used to pre-concentrate the extracts and
reduce detection and quantication levels during chromatographic
analysis. Another reason for this post-extraction step is to avoid
the peak distortion caused by injecting samples containing high
concentration of MeCN onto columns equilibrated with low MeCN
concentration. The procedure is time-consuming and such handling always increase variability and can be source of losses and
degradation. Moreover, the use of this post-extraction step can be
avoided by using a compatible solvent for extraction such as EtOH
or MeOH, by limiting the sample size to less than 5 L when using
conventional C18 columns or by using high ow HPLC methods with
monolithic columns [81,104]. Avoiding the use of such cumbersome procedure can greatly decrease the time required for sample
preparation.
More often, some additional sample preparation are used to isolate analytes of interest from other sample components that can
26
interfere with the chromatographic analysis or as an extract enrichment step, wherein the analyte concentration is increase above
the determination limit of the nal determination technique. SPE
is one of the most used enrichment techniques. SFE have been
used by some authors [52,129,163,164] to provide a clean concentrated isoavone extract to be used in the chromatographic
analysis.
A wide selection of sorbents, ranging from classical C8 and C18
silica based sorbents to new polymeric materials, enables substantial selectivity of the enrichment process. Most traditional solid
phase extraction sorbents often result in poor analyte recoveries,
insufcient cleanup, or irreproducibility from extraction to extraction. Polymeric sorbents are the latest breakthrough in SPE, since
they enable higher recoveries, higher reproducibility, and lower
consumption of plant materials for the HPLC analysis than classical
sorbents. Polymeric sorbents also have the advantage of remaining conditioned even if the sorbents accidentally run dry during
the extraction. Divinylbenzene based polymeric sorbents exhibit
excellent stability over the whole pH range unlike classical modied silica gel sorbents C18 and C8 [164]. Excellent results were
obtained using polymeric sorbents for concentration and clean-up
of isoavones from red clover [164,165] and soy extracts [126]. For
soy isoavones, divinylbenzene based polymeric cartridges showed
better retention and much higher breakthrough volume during
sample load and washing steps than classical C18 sorbents from
different manufactures.
Besides of the use of new polymeric sorbents, the recent trend
for the use of SPE is automation and coupling on-line with the analysis method. Compared with manual methods, automated SPE is
less labour intensive, requires less sample handling providing better recovery, is more reproducible, is performed in a closed system
(less chance of sample oxidation or solvent evaporation) and can be
performed relatively fast. For instance, Rostagno et al. [126] developed an automated SPE method for soy isoavones achieving very
high recoveries (99.37%) and reproducibility (>98%) with a concentration factor of approximately 6:1 in less than 10 min. Another
future prospect for the use of SPE is to be coupled on-line with the
extraction (such as PLE and SFE) and analysis methods reducing
to a minimum post-treatment of extracts in order reduce sample
handling allowing more precise and reliable data to be obtained.
7. Separation approaches/techniques
Many different analytical methods can be used for the analysis
of isoavones from soybeans and soy foods. These analytical methods include gas chromatography, liquid chromatography (both with
and without mass detectors) capillary electromigration techniques
(CE), and immunoassay. In the last few years several reviews about
the analysis of isoavone extracts using these techniques have been
published [166171].
Chromatography and CE are, without doubt, the most relevant
techniques applied in this eld. The use of CE for the analysis of
soy isoavone samples is very attractive due to the high resolution,
efciency and analysis speed with minimum reagent and sample
consumption. There are a variety of versatile CE separation principles which are feasible of adapting to solve different analytical
problems. The possibility of coupling CE to different types of detectors, especially to sensitive electrochemical detectors, is one of the
main advantages of these techniques and point to a powerful tool
for the characterization of isoavones in soy derived samples.
Although the use of CE in the identication process is a potentially appropriate means of rapid screening it has been applied only
on a few occasions for the analysis of isoavones from soy samples, and in most cases only some chemicals forms were identied
[168,171174].
However, CE is characterized by poor quantitative reproducibility, mainly caused by inconsistent ow rate and injection volume
or amount. Although signicant advances in this aspect has been
made, the reproducibility issues of CE, especially when applied to
real samples, still needs to be solved before it become a real alternative to more consolidated techniques such as chromatography
[171,175].
In this context, of all available analysis techniques, HPLC is
the method of choice since it requires simple pre-analysis sample
preparation, allows measurement of all isoavone chemical forms,
is highly efcient and reproducible, is widely available and has been
extensively studied. HPLC separation of isoavones is generally carried out on reversed-phase columns with using MeOH or MeCN
and water containing a small amount of acid (formic, acetic, phosphoric or triuoroacidic acids) as mobile phase. Since isoavones
exhibit a weak acidic nature the use of acids can make the analytes
to be easily dissociated in a solvent system enhancing chromatographic separation, resolution and improve peak shape [169]. Most
often used detectors coupled to HPLC are UV and UV-diode array
detection (DAD) monitoring in the range of 230280 nm, since all
isoavones exhibit an intense absorption in this UV region of the
spectrum. Gradient elution is usually necessary in order to separate all main isoavones since they are very chemically close. As
previously mentioned some isoavones are particularly difcult
to separate from each other (i.e. MGi, AGly and De) [81] and isocratic elution has proven to be insufcient. Isocratic elution may be
accomplished if a hydrolysis step is used before analysis with the
implicit handicap of quantifying only the aglycone forms [51].
Conventional microparticulate 5 m RP-C18 columns are the
most used stationary phase and analysis time needed to separate
all main soy isoavones usually reach 60 min. Similarly to sample preparation, the current trend for the analysis of soy isoavone
extracts is toward fast, high sensitive and high-resolution separation of all main chemical forms of these compounds in soybeans
and soy foods.
One alternative to achieve faster and more sensitive analysis is
to reduce the particle size of the stationary phase. The use of smallparticle columns (less than 2 m particle size) can shorten analysis
times, while maintaining or even increasing high separation efciencies, since it is very well known from Van Deemter equations
that the efciency of chromatographic processes is proportional to
particle size decrease and to the higher allowed linear velocities.
The negative aspect of small particle packed columns used in HPLC
is the higher column back-pressure generated [176,177]. Hence, to
take full advantage of sub-2 m particles stationary phases high
pressure liquid chromatography systems that operate at high pressures (>400 bar) are required. Not only is the system capacity of
operating at high pressures important but also the ability to accurately and reproducibility integrate an analyte peak and detector
sampling rate must be high enough to capture enough data points
across the peak. Some applications of this innovative technology for
isoavones from different matrixes can be found in the literature
[178181].
Churchwell et al. [178] compared UPLCMS conventional
HPLCMS for the determination of isoavones in waste water and
found that in general, UPLCMS produced signicant improvements in method sensitivity, speed, and resolution when compared
to conventional HPLCMS. Improvements in chromatographic resolution with UPLC were apparent from generally narrower peak and
from a separation of diastereomers not possible using HPLC.
As an example of the enormous potential of these new advances
in chromatography, Klejdus et al. [179], developed an analysis
method for some selected isoavones (Di, Gly, Gi, De, Gle, Ge,
Ononin, sissotrin, formononetin and biochanin) which takes less
than 1 min. The method was successfully applied to soy bits and red
27
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